A Presidential Legacy

A Presidential Legacy

Mary Hickerson took over the reins of Minnesota Wisconsin Collie Rescue (MWCR) eight years go when the rescue was a mere two years old. Under Mary's watch MWCR has grown into one of the top breed rescues in the country that adopts out an average of 100 collies a year. She has been a leader, foster parent and mentor to many. She steps down this month as president but plans to continue her involvement with the rescue. 

Mary worked quietly and tirelessly behind the scenes ensuring the well-being of the collies while also working as a professor and Associate Provost at Southwest Minnesota State University in Marshall. There have been many ups and downs of the growing rescue, and Mary was always willing to listen and bring in outside help when needed. She often traveled from her homes in southwestern Minnesota and eventually the lake country in central Minnesota to all parts of Iowa, Wisconsin, South Dakota, North Dakota, participating in transports or other rescue-related events and meetings. She presided over the Annual Dinner every fall, often traveling through the inclement Minnesota weather, and the Collie Frolic every June. She was always quick with a smile or comment making everyone feel welcome. Her dedication was and is unsurpassed.

Stepping up as President is Terry Libro. Terry became a member of MWCR in 2005 when she adopted Mindy. She began volunteering with the Events/Fundraising Committee a year later and currently serves as Chair for that committee. She was appointed to the MWCR Board of Directors during the summer of 2010 filling in as Secretary and was eventually elected to that position in 2012. 

Since adopting Mindy, Terry has adopted five MWCR collies, giving homes to the often hard-to-adopt senior collies. She currently has Folie (10) and Molly (8), along with two cats, Bunny (18) and Stubbie (16), whom she adopted after their elderly owner died.  

Terry worked in the healthcare field her entire career and now works part-time for a social research firm in St. Paul. Thank you Terry, for graciously accepting this appointment!

Pet-A-Palooza!

I love this event. It really is one of the better pet events in the metro. It's growing, too. They don't charge the rescues to have a booth, it's outside, it's free admission and free parking and just about everybody brings their dog. We saw one white rat, too. It was a steady stream of people all day. 

I couldn't get the boy out of bed at 8 a.m., but he had a long Friday with summer school and then working an 8-hour shift, so I let him be after three attempts. 

It started out cloudy with a threat of rain, but the sun won and it was a gorgeous day. Nice breeze. I was going to bring both Woodson and Lady, but with just me, I decided to bring Lady as she seems to love people. As we left the car and walked to the booth, I was having doubts. She pulled me in all directions and circles as she tried to take in everything at once. 

At the booth she wanted to jump on everybody, so all-in-all it was a good training day for her, too. We had so many visitors to the booth and several collies, which we don't see very often besides our own. We hear a lot of comments from people saying they had a collie when they were young. I think most people don't think collies make good city dogs. It's my opinion that any dog can be a city dog, it's all about exercise and training.

I didn't get any pictures at the event, Lady kept my hands full, but I was able to grab the first picture of my own of her on my deck. She was pretty wiped out for the rest of the afternoon after we got home, but got her second wind in the evening. I'll also post a link to the video I took of all three dogs playing. Lady would play with Woodson on the deck, run inside and play with Brett, then run back out to play with Woodson. She can get pretty rough when she plays.

Lady is on the left.

Video on facebook

Bunker's owner sent me a picture of him (on the right) with Kelly, a new dog they are keeping for a few days on his way to Minnesota. Looks like they like each other!

Lady's First Night

Not a whole lotta sleeping going on.

I walked and walked Lady after getting home yesterday evening and she didn't take care of any business. Inside, I kept her on the leash and when it was time for bed we tried the outdoors again w/o success.

About 1 a.m. she actually woke me up which I promptly ignored as she had been trying to play with Woodson keeping me from falling asleep, so I was just drifting off when she poked her nose at me. Five minutes later I heard the whiz. Jumped up to find she had pooped, too. Great. I got after her, took her out, which since she had already gone, didn't make much sense, but . . . cleaned up. Back to bed and she was fine the rest of the night. Got her out right away this morning and she peed in the grass! Here's hoping she figured it out that fast. She's a smart dog.

Backtracking

I arrived at the farm about 7:00. Lady came running up with that collie smile on her face. She really does love people. She's a little rugged, but doesn't stink. I thought she was going to smell like a farm dog, you know. She moves really well, just floats across the ground. Light and springy on her feet. 

The tipping point for surrendering her was apparently the other day she wandered over to a neighbor's house and helped herself to their BBQ. But c'mon, they left it out on the grill all by itself!

Note to adopter: don't leave Lady alone with meat on the grill!

She needs a good bath and brush and will be fabulous!

She's having some trouble in my entryway on the laminate floor, but should get used to it eventually.

She's over-interested in the cat.

She wants to run up to everybody she meets.

Needs a lot of leash training.

Lady - #19

Lady - #19

Lady is a 1.5 year old collie coming from a farm that is being surrounded by development and Lady loves people so she wanders. My first collie, Kelly, would wander and be gone for hours at a time, but that was rural w/o any urban sprawl then.

Her owners are worried that she will be hit by a car as they don't have a fenced yard and she is used to being loose. She will be spayed and ready for adoption quickly. It's my guess she will go fast!